After opening the first trading session of 2023 in the green, indices quickly slipped into the red and remained there for the rest of the day. For those of you hoping the flip of a calendar was going to change near-term trading conditions, sorry to tell you — it hasn’t. All major indices are off session lows, however: the Dow, which dropped 300 points at one time today, closed just dow -12 points, -0.04%. The S&P 500 came in -0.41%, and the Nasdaq was -0.76%. The small-cap Russell 2000 reached -0.62%.
We got some modestly better-than-expected economic news today early, but clearly the markets weren’t reacting positively to it.
S&P U.S. Manufacturing PMI
for December came in unrevised for its final print at 46.2, still in contraction territory (sub-50) but at least not further down. Since April 2022’s peak at 59, we’ve seen a decline in each month except one.
Construction Spending
rose +0.2% for November, reversing the revised -0.2% posted the previous month and even stronger from the expected -0.4%. Private construction in the month was the difference, +0.3%, with non-residential construction jumping +0.9% for November. Of these, power infrastructure grew +0.9% and transportation was +0.7%.
Tesla
TSLA
, which fell -50% in Q4 alone — its worst quarter on record — dumped another -12% today, following a vehicle delivery report of 1.31 million vehicles, -90K from projections. The company is now down -72% from its all-time highs set the first week of November 2021. Eventually, the perceived excesses will be drained from Tesla stock; CEO Elon Musk can backstop this by finding a new boss for Twitter so he can get back to his day job.
Apple
AAPL
has hit a new 52-week low today, -3.8% on the session and now more than -30% below its all-time highs hit in December of 2021. This brings Apple below $2 trillion in market cap, even as the company saw strong demand for iPhones over holiday shopping season. In fact, December reversed five straight months of sales declines. The question is: can this last? Plenty of uncertainty regarding U.S./global recession possibilities and whether China is really going to finally reopen.
Tomorrow, the economic data heats up: ISM Manufacturing for December, JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover) for November, FOMC minutes from the mid-December meeting and additional motor vehicle sales releases are all expected to come out. The private-sector payroll report from
ADP
ADP
, normally scheduled for the first Wednesday of the month, is bumped back a day due to the New Year’s holiday on Monday.
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